You Have Heart
by TheMortician'sDaughter
Summary: "I knew it was meant for you. I took it willingly, however, but then I saw – I saw how you were wasting everything you have. You're throwing everything away to live a human life. What is that for, Thor? What is it about all of this worthlessness that is so… appealing?" Thor/Loki, with an AU-ish kind of feel. Double-shot.
1. Chapter One

**In my mind, this fic does not make a lick of sense. That could very well be because I don't understand the way my mind works. I get these weird ideas and just write them and hope that people read and like them. xD**

**So that being said, I do sincerely hope that you all like this, that is, if it makes a little bit more sense than I think it does. But it was fun to write anyway, I suppose that's what matters. So I hope you enjoy, and feel free to leave a review. I don't bite. Most of the time.**

For late August, it was a rather dreary day. Rain pattered against the windows and grey clouds clothed the usually cheerful sky, making for a relaxing day spent inside. Thor had always been fond of the thunder – unlike most, it gave him a mixture of serenity and excitement, and he often stood on the porch to watch the lightening flicker across the sky. Occasionally on this day, he would look up from the book in his hands when he heard even the faintest crack of thunder, his lips curved into a smile.

It was nearing around nine in the evening when the rain began to pour down in buckets, flooding over his porch and sliding down the steps like a waterfall. He sighed and stood from the sofa, crossing through the hallway towards his front door to lock it shut, as the pounding of the water against the storm door window was beginning to become irksome to his peace. Before the door clicked into place, he could have sworn he noticed a figure at the end of his driveway, but brushed it off as just the shadow of a shaking tree. He was distance enough away from his neighbours to not have to worry about them coming for a casual knock on his door.

The lights were dim as he made his way back to the den, reaching for the volume he'd thrown aside when he stood before. A floorboard creaked beneath his foot when he stepped onto the hardwood floor, and immediately after he thought he heard another series of footsteps outside of his door. Halting where he was, he turned back around towards the front entryway and listened for more, but nothing came. He huffed and turned back, but the mysterious noise came again.

_I must be hearing things,_ Thor thought, trying to shake it off. _It's probably only the rain._ Setting the book on and end table, he turned right and headed for the stairs, set on going to bed and forgetting about the noise. By the time morning arrived, his mind would have been cleansed and he'd be freshly alert, not having to worry about whatever hallucination was toying with his mind.

**# #**

When his eyes blinked open to the many shreds of light cast across his floor and bed, Thor groaned. He'd been enjoying his sleep – a nice, deep slumber that he'd been in need of for and endless number of weeks. His work often kept him out late and up early, letting him get only four or five hours in per night. Luckily, though, he'd managed to get Friday, the day before, off so he could enjoy a slightly longer weekend and catch up on much needed rest.

Thor groggily made his way down the creaky stairs and into the kitchen, beginning to scoop coffee grounds into the pot for his morning brew. While the coffee pot was crackling, he stepped outside to the early-morning sun for the daily newspaper, but instead found a slip of paper neatly folded into a triangle in its place.

Curious, he picked up the piece of paper and began to unfold it, finding that whoever did so had done quite the job of it. It took him a good two minutes to even figure out how to navigate through the intricate pattern, and when he finally did, two simple words were scrawled in near perfect scrip across the middle.

_Day off?_

He spent the next few moments staring at the paper, rereading the words over and over again until the shrill beep of the coffee pot sounded from inside the house.

There had been somebody on his porch last night, he was sure of it. They had left him a note, and one that looked like it'd taken time. That wasn't normal, not for him. He had a few colleagues at his workplace, but none were acquainted enough to know his exact address, let alone creep on his doorstep late at night.

Thor shrugged and walked back inside, folding the note in half. He placed it on the kitchen table and went to pour his coffee, his mind racing.

Once he was dressed in a simple plaid shirt and blue jeans, Thor decided to head out to town. He had some grocery shopping to do and figured it would get his mind off of his somewhat-stalkerish note. He climbed into his car and reversed down the driveway, headed towards the quaint town square.

The buzz of the local grocery store filled his ears as he stepped into the crowded building. He sighed and pushed his way through the endless people as fast as he could, itching to get out of the place as soon as he possibly could.

"Thor!" His heart nearly skipped a beat at the sudden shout of his name. He turned around towards the voice, scanning the faces for whoever may have caught his attention. "Hey, Goldilocks, over here." There was a tap on his shoulder from the right, and he turned to face the man.

"Oh, it's you," Thor said, relieved that it was someone he knew and not the mystery note-writer. "What are you doing here?"

"Hunting elephants." Tony rolled his eyes. "I'm shopping for food, what does it look like?"

Thor shrugged. "Oh, well, enjoy yourself with that, then." He gave the dark-haired man a smile and turned towards the fresh produce section.

"Wait, hold up there, buddy," the other man said, grabbing ahold of Thor's shoulder. "I didn't just stop you to say a quick hello, I actually needed to tell you something." Thor looked at him and nodded, telling him to go ahead.

"When you were off yesterday, someone came by the office and asked for you," Tony informed him. "I don't have a clue who he was, but he asked for you by name. I was thinking maybe a relative or something, I dunno. But I just thought you ought to know." Thor's brows furrowed and he looked at his colleague, his mind going straight to the place he didn't want it to dwell.

"What did he look like?" he asked curiously.

Tony looked around for a minute, thinking. "He was kinda tall, maybe an inch or two shorter than you. Dark hair, dressed mostly in black. That's really all I remember. As soon as I said you weren't there he just turned around and walked off. Ass." Thor pursed his lips and shook his head.

"He doesn't sound familiar to me," he replied. "Maybe he was mistaken and looking for someone else." Tony let out a short chuckle.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. Because you can totally mix up a name like Thor Odinson with someone else in the twenty-first century." He laughed a bit more and Thor looked away, and they both bid each other the typical 'goodbye, have a nice weekend, see you on Monday' before going their separate ways.

Finally, he made it through the checkout line, after earning a strange glance from the cashier as the young girl scanned each one of the five watermelons that filled his cart. Despite the od glances he received from the other people in the line, he made it through without causing any disruption, as his mind was elsewhere.

He'd been asked for specifically by name. nobody had ever asked for him in that manner, first and last name – mostly it was just "the big blonde guy" or as Tony liked, "Goldilocks." Few people who passed by his workplace even _knew_ his name, and for that he was glad.

But not this man.

This man knew his name, his full name, and he'd taken the time to visit his workplace and ask for it. Quite possibly he'd managed to pull Thor's address out of them, too, which could provide an answer for the strange note.

_But why?_

That question swam through his mind throughout his entire ride home, and as he unloaded the grocery bags from the trunk. Just as he was bringing in the last two bags, he noticed yet another note shoved into the door hinge, this time folded into a spherical shape. He hesitated before pulling it out and struggling to open it yet again, but eventually managed to tear the thing open.

_Mmm, watermelon._

Frantically, Thor sped back into his house, expecting to find a tall, dark-haired man sitting on his counter indulging in one of his freshly-bought watermelons. To his pleasure, the house was empty and the melons were left untouched, and he let out a sigh of relief.

Whoever this was seemed to have a fascination with two-worded messages.

And, of course, Thor's personal life, which was a much more concerning matter.

**# #**

Two days had passed since Thor has received the two notes on his doorstep, and he was pleased to find that the person – who he was nearly positive was the man Tony had told him about – hadn't left any more.

The weekend had passed and Monday, the dreadful, slow Monday, had come again. Thor had risen bright and early and driven to work, not at all ready for the strenuous day that faced him. He just hoped that it would all pass quickly and he could go home to an empty house and let it all melt away.

His feet dragged through the building all day, but he kept his guard up, anticipating that the man could possibly make a return. Tony and a few of the others must have noticed, but Thor simply brushed it off as being a bit more tired than usual.

The clock finally struck seven and he was able to leave the place, glad the fatiguing day was finally at a close. All of the roads were quiet on his way home, which he certainly enjoyed, however being the only car on the road had an eerie quality. Shadows seemed to jump out whenever he passed a particularly large tree or an animal scampered across the bumpy street, keeping him on edge. The gravel of the driveway crackled beneath the tires as he pulled in, washed with a sense of relief.

Before he entered the front door, Thor stopped momentarily at the mailbox, pulling out the few envelopes shoved inside. He flipped through them as he walked towards the door; _junk mail, electricity bill, junk, junk, junk – wait._ He pulled a cream coloured envelope from the bottom of the pile and examined the front – his name was printed in a perfect, almost typewriter-like script in the middle of the paper with no other text around it. No return address, no postage stamp, nothing. He tore open the top and pulled out what was inside, reading it over.

_Forest. Behind you._

Thor gulped. Another one.

He looked towards the lining of trees behind the house, scanning the shadows for some sort of figure. Dropping the rest of the mail on the doorstep, he hesitantly walked towards the forest, feeling the cool breeze of the night slide across his face. The paper was stuff between his fingers as he stepped into the foliage, his gaze flickering around, looking for his mysterious "fan."

When he found nothing, Thor sighed and turned around. It was no use. The notes were probably the doing of one of his prankster coworkers, and he was probably making a big deal out of nothing. He began walking back out towards the house when something latched onto his shoulder and halted him in his tracks.

"Scared, are we?" The voice behind him was soft, the words smoothly falling off of its tongue. "This won't do."

Thor's breath was ragged in his throat when he answered. "Who are you?"

The being behind him laughed quietly. "Why don't you turn around and find out?" He felt the hand slide off his shoulder and suddenly the person –who at this point he was sure was a man – wasn't so close behind him. Thor turned his back to the house and faced the man behind him, hearing the leaves snap beneath his feet.

Despite the darkness, Thor could make out the slender figure poised between the trees. The man's hands were holding something behind his back, where a silky green cape started at his shoulders and fell downwards so it nearly brushed the dewy grass. Somehow, Thor thought, he looked familiar.

His eyes must have held a flicker of recognition or something of the sort, because the man then said, "You remember, do you not? Or is all of this foreign to you, Son of Odin?"

Thor's blonde brows furrowed and he managed to shake his head. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, keeping his voice from shaking out of fear. The man grinned, his white teeth shimmering through the darkness.

"How very strange," he replied. "I'd like to think that you'd remember me. The name Loki doesn't ring a bell?"

Thor paused, his lips pressed into a thin line. _Loki. _There was a familiar ring to it, somehow. Like those blurry memories from one's childhood, vague and cloudy yet still there, waiting to be reminisced upon. _Loki._ Yes, there was certainly something there. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"There's something there," Loki – or at least Thor presumed that's who he was – said slowly, his grin spreading wider. "I can see it in your face. You know, Thor Odinson, you remember."

"I _don't,_" Thor replied, gritting his teeth. "I don't know what you're trying to say!"

"You know exactly what I'm trying to say." Suddenly, Loki's face was only inches from Thor's, and he'd finally removed his hands from behind his back. Thor was almost afraid to look away from the other man's intense emerald gaze on his, but anxiously stole a glance towards what was in the hands of the other.

He felt Loki's hand trace the stubble over his chin, but Thor kept his head straight as the other slowly circled around where he stood. "It's buried deep," Loki whispered, stopping behind Thor's back. "But it's there. It always has been." Thor could feel the warmth of lips at his ear, and a shiver ran down his spine. "Don't you remember, Thor? Don't you remember your childhood? The boy you played with, fought with, the one who disappeared?"

Thor was still. He could feel Loki's breath on the side of his neck, and his skin turned cold.

He remembered.

"What happened to you?" Thor murmured, his eyes set straight on the blackness ahead. He felt the tip of something touch his upper back.

"I went home."

Thor turned his head to face the raven-haired man at his side. "Where?"

"Asgard." Loki took a step away from him, his face turned towards the ground. When he did, Thor could finally see what he held in his hand – a long, golden scepter, curved to a point at the end where it was wrapped around a glowing blue orb. Thor gulped again, not able to take his eyes off of the menacing weapon.

"You never believed me when I tried to tell you our games weren't just make-believe," Loki continued, keeping his gaze low. "You never thought it was real. You thought I was wrong in the head. It was never me. It was _you._"

"You were sick, Loki," Thor finally responded, looking away from the scepter. "They took you away."

"_I was not sick!"_ Loki roared, slamming the butt of his weapon perpendicular to the ground. A bang shot through the air at the impact and a burst of blue erupted from the grass, illuminating the forest around them for the briefest of moments. "You were. _You_ were brainwashed, Thor, you still are. Those notes I left you this past week, they didn't sound at all familiar, not one bit? The career you pursued in architecture, being extremely handy with a hammer? You see nothing in all of this, _nothing?_"

Thor shook his head. "I see you are still caught up in our games."

Loki's jaw hardened and he stepped forward once more, so close that he could nearly taste Thor's ragged breath on his tongue. "It was never a game," he whispered, placing his free hand on the back of the blonde man's neck. "You were destined to be king, and you refused. You gave everything up, Thor. You gave it to me. I was never meant for it. You were. You never believed it, not a thing."

Thor said nothing, his skin tingling under the other's touch. He wanted to believe, he wanted to so badly he could taste it – but there was something, something in the back of his brain, that said no. He tried to push it away, to focus on what seemed unreal in front of him, keeping his silence.

Watching, Loki smiled. He held his scepter lightly in his right hand, bringing it forward and touching one of the pointed tips to Thor's chest.

"You never believed that you have heart."


	2. Chapter Two

**… hopefully this second and last installment will make this whole thing make more sense. xD So this fic is now a doubleshot. And I sincerely hope it lives up to the expectations. :)**

It'd been a long time since he'd felt this kind of fear. For that, Thor was thankful. However, having not felt that particular emotion for an extended period of time, it only made that very moment all the more horrible.

The pointed tip of Loki's scepter was still placed on his chest, and though he knew it was nowhere near fatal, Thor knew his heart rate had increased. _You have heart. _Loki's words rang through his head, making the world around him spin.

"You weren't made for this life, Thor." Loki lightly poked him with the scepter. "Why couldn't you just accept that I was right all along?"

Thor gulped. This couldn't be happening. It made no sense. Loki had been gone for years, _years –_ he'd been taken away, deemed psychotic by the professionals. This had to be some sort of sick joke, one that escaped mental hospital patients played on their victims.

"You're not right," Thor finally replied. "You're sick."

Loki removed his weapon and held it by his side, grinning. "Oh, no," he said, the words slithering off his tongue like a python. "I'm right, _brother. _I am."

"You weren't my brother. You never were."

"Then you, Thor, are sorely mistaken." Suddenly, Loki was no longer in front of him. His figure had disappeared into thin air, and Thor let a sliver of relief blossom into his mind, only to find a pair of arms around his body from behind a moment later. "You don't want this. This life you're leading is nothing, _nothing,_ compared to the one you could have had, the one you _can_ have. You don't know what you want, Thor. You have no idea. But I am going to show you."

Despite Thor's struggles, Loki managed to pull him further into the cover of the trees, and a minute later he felt his back hit the bark of a tree. The arm had fallen from his body, and once again Thor hoped that the other lad left him alone, until he caught sight of the dull glow of blue only mere feet away.

He had to stop this.

If Thor was right, which he sincerely, desperately hoped he was, Loki was not as clever as he remembered. He doubted that. Loki was devious, a trickster – the jokes and mischievous doings were thought to be simple fun when they were younger, but it proved to be much more serious as time, and their relationship, progressed.

Now that they were both older, and needless to say more intelligent, Thor presumed that Loki was anything but less insidious.

"Hold up." Thor's voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, but Loki obeyed. The man stepped closer, his emerald eyes sparkling. "Before you… 'Show me' whatever you're scheming about, how about you come inside for a few moments? I have a rather large supply of watermelon if you're fond of it."

Loki stepped back, confused. "Watermelon?"

"Yes," Thor replied, stalling. "It's quite… quite good. I enjoy it immensely."

"I don't care for Midgardian delicacies," Loki spat, grabbing Thor's wrist. "It sickens me to know that you gave up everything you could have had to work as a mere architect and eat… watermelon." He shook his head. "I never wanted the throne. I knew it was meant for you. I took it willingly, however, but then I _saw_ – I saw how you were wasting everything you have. You're throwing everything away to live a _human_ life. What is that for, Thor? What is it about all of this worthlessness that is so… _appealing?_"

At the end of his tirade, Loki was practically pressed against Thor's body. Thor looked down to see the other's hand still gripping his wrist and the space between the two nearly invisible. "I feel like this isn't about any throne," he said slowly, making eye contact again.

"What makes you say that?" Loki was so close that Thor could feel the smaller man's breath on his slightly parted lips.

"You should learn how to take your own hints, Loki," Thor replied. His proximity to the other was slightly alarming, and normally he would have moved away, but something kept him standing there. Perhaps it was the fact that, though unsettling, he knew Loki was probably wrong in the head, or maybe it was the nagging thought in the back of his brain that told him differently.

Loki must have taken notice of Thor's hesitation to step back, because his mouth twisted into another cunning grin. "Always so brave," he murmured slowly. "Always."

"Bravery is learned from growing up with someone like you," Thor answered.

"Funny you say that." Loki's grip tightened. "Because after all, I am the younger one." The last thing Thor saw was Loki's pearly white teeth before their lips were touching, mingling, moving in perfect synch – and somehow, Thor found that he didn't mind.

He almost felt like he was dreaming, some sort of bittersweet trick his mind was playing on him, but it wasn't. And he enjoyed that; he enjoyed it immensely. It was nothing he'd ever thought he'd appreciate – being trapped in the embrace of another man, his fingers threaded through the soft, dark hair of the other, their lips so intertwined that it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began.

Thor felt his back hit the bark of a tree behind him, and he found himself crushed between the rough bark and the warmth of Loki's body against his. He could get used to this, he thought; he could get very used to this. There was a soft thud as the scepter hit the forest floor, and Loki then used his free hand to cup Thor's immaculate jawline in his slender fingers. Thor groaned from deep in his throat, and Loki eventually pulled back, breathless.

"Do you see now, Thor," he gasped, his eyes only opened into slits. "Why I came back for you?"

In the same state of exhaustion, Thor nodded. "I knew it had nothing to do with any throne," he said.

"Oh no, that was certainly a component," Loki corrected. "I still wish for you to come home and claim what is rightfully yours."

"And if I don't?" Thor nearly retorted, his voice becoming stronger.

"Your heart will be wasted. Asgard needs you, Thor, and so do I. We always have."


End file.
